“I’ve long said that the best copywriters also make great teachers, with that rare ability to make key points so clear and easy to understand -- they seem obvious... Gil-Ad Schwartz proves that point, presenting deep concepts with a practical, easy-to-grasp approach.”

Do you need more clients?

If you’re looking to grow your business — and if you can meet four specific criteria — then I may be able to help you attract more clients than you can handle.

Here’s how:

My name is Gil-Ad Schwartz, and I specialize in advertising that’s based on salesmanship and persuasion.

In other words, you won’t get any advice from me on how to build a brand, or come up with a witty slogan, or engage in relationship marketing. Yes, these are the buzzwords everyone talks about. Yes, it’s the exciting and glamorous part of the marketing world. Yes, it’s fun to unleash your inner artist and pretend you’re on Mad Men.

But the truth is that brand-building is hugely overrated. Expensive, time-consuming, and unnecessary, focusing on brand image tends only to pull your attention away from what really matters.

In contrast, the advertising advice you’ll find on this site is tightly focused on bringing in new clients and making more money. My methodology for achieving these goals is straightforward, practical, and firmly grounded in reality. It’s not based on what “looks good.” It’s based on what works.

Here’s a brief overview of what I’m all about:

1. I believe that an advertisement is nothing more than a sales pitch. And, just like a face-to-face sales pitch, your ads should be all about selling your product. The purpose of advertising is not to entertain, or to win awards for creativity, or to demonstrate to the world your razor-sharp wit. The sole purpose of advertising is to bring in new clients.

2. I believe that advertising, like face-to-face selling, is a process of persuasion. This means an ad must gently yet assertively explain to clients why giving you money is in their own best interest. You must set out a coherent and comprehensive sales argument, which overcomes objections, diffuses resistance, and prompts the clients to take action.

3. I believe that advertising, like face-to-face selling, involves communicating with real people. You must talk to them the way you talk to real people. There is no room for mindless clichés and condescending rhymes. If you wouldn’t say it to a client in person, it shouldn’t go in your ad.

Yes, the dynamic of presenting to a large group is different from the dynamic of presenting to one individual. But your prospective clients are not reading your ad all together as one large group. Your clients are reading your ad one person at a time. It’s not a herd of zombies you’re talking to. It’s real people. Your message must contain substance.

4. I believe that the most crucial element in the persuasion process is dealing with client resistance. You see, people really don’t like the idea of being persuaded. And, whenever you have an agenda — like a product to sell — they will automatically resist you. This is true even when you’re making a great offer that perfectly matches their needs.

Think about it:

Half a century ago, over-the-top advertising promises were the currency of the realm. The game was, essentially, “Let’s see who can shout the loudest; who can make the biggest, most colorful claims.” But decades of hype have taken their toll. People have become cynical. The game has changed.

The new currencies of advertising are credibility, believability, and trust. The new game is all about making a promise your clients can believe even though they know that you have an agenda.

Managing people’s natural resistance to your sales pitch is not only the most important element of persuasion. It’s also the element most often ignored. Many of today’s advertisers seem perfectly happy to make the same sort of overhyped promises to which consumers have become immune. They act as if sticking their heads in the sand will magically cause their clients’ cynicism to disappear.

It doesn’t.

For this reason, businesses which are willing to acknowledge the uncomfortable truth — that merely blasting out the same old hype no longer works — can enjoy an enormous advantage. They can often become the most reputable and sought-after service providers in their markets. And they can often flood their businesses with clients who are willing to pay premium prices… because they trust you more than they trust anyone else.

But if you want to enjoy these advantages, you must first forget what you think you know about how advertising works. You must be willing to abandon all the shiny, glamorous misconceptions. You must begin to look at things from an entirely new angle.

Shall I show you how?

If what I’m saying so far strikes a chord with you, you may find that you and I are well-suited to work together. As I mentioned above, there are four requirements I absolutely insist upon before I take on a client. I’ll explain what these criteria are — and why they’re so important to me — in due course. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.